Jade Island (31 page)

“And good old Harry kept on helping you out. Why? What was in it for him?”

“He was protecting me.”

“Bullshit. He was building his own empire.” Kyle glanced at Archer.

“Go ahead,” Archer said. “If anybody has a need to know, it’s Wen.”

“Harry knew he would never be Wen’s Number One Son, but he had ambition,” Kyle said. “He saw the Red Phoenix triad making money by the container load from drugs, gambling, extortion, and more drugs. He wanted some of the action. Han Seng was willing to oblige. But first, Harry would have to do something really special for Seng and the triad.”

“The jade shroud,” Lianne said.

“Yes,” Kyle agreed. “SunCo, through Seng, had tried to woo Dick Farmer with a jade burial suit that was, shall we say, dubious. It didn’t pass muster with Farmer’s curator. SunCo tried to bribe a better suit out of one of the state museums, but China isn’t like Russia yet. There’s still enough civil government in China to protect state museums from being creamed by thieves and sold on the international market. Red Phoenix needed a real burial shroud. Harry Tang had one.”

“So he traded the Tang jade suit for the fraudulent one SunCo had,” Lianne said. “He assumed Wen would never
know the difference. But what about me? What about the inventory I would conduct at the end of the year?”

“You were a problem, sweetheart,” Kyle said, brushing the backs of his fingers down her cheek. “That’s why he arranged for the Red Phoenix to kill you, after he first had you arrested for theft.”

Suddenly Johnny looked almost as old as Joe. “What? You can’t know that!”

“Actually,” Archer said, “we pretty much can. When it looked like Lianne was going to make bail, Harry’s lawyer called Vancouver. A few hours later, two triad hit men were waiting for Lianne at her home. There was no sign of forced entry. The Tang Consortium owns the building. If Kyle hadn’t been real close by, Lianne would be dead and every last jade theft would be laid at her door. Or her headstone, in this case.”

Johnny turned to Wen, whose forehead was resting on his folded hands. “Father, do you believe this?”

“Have I a more sensible choice?” Wen asked, lifting his head. “It would be like Harry to stake everything on one bold, foolish plan. Number Two Son is clever, but not so clever as he thinks.”

“He’d better be,” Kyle said. “Farmer was well and truly pissed when he saw the wrong shroud on his altar. No doubt he recognized it for the fake Seng had already tried to sell him. Then he went straight to Seng and started screaming. Seng knows there’s only one place that particular fake jade suit could have come from—the Tang vaults. Seng has a lot of explaining to do to the Red Phoenix boys. I’m sure he’s looking for Harry to help him out.”

“The triad won’t be happy to lose a big fish like Farmer,” Archer added. “All those juicy opportunities for graft, corruption, and money laundering in the New World. So if you hear from Harry, tell him to find a good, deep hole, dive in, and pull it in after him.”

“It would be better if I didn’t hear from him,” Johnny said roughly. “I’m ashamed that he is my brother.”

“In case you get to feeling sentimental, remember that Daniel likely was next on Harry’s list of expendable relatives,” Archer said. “Good old Harry wasn’t going to take the fall for any missing jade.”

Johnny went gray and looked at his youngest son.

For the first time, Daniel Tang spoke. “A few months ago, Harry told me to start checking the contents of the vault, using last year’s inventory list. He didn’t say why.”

“So that you’d accuse Lianne of stealing,” Kyle said. “Which you did.”

“I had good reason.”

“You had shit,” Kyle said curtly. Lianne stopped translating, but he kept talking. “You were so jealous of Lianne’s relationship with Wen that you couldn’t wait to accuse her. The fact that she’s the daughter of your father’s lifelong lover just made revenge sweeter.”

Daniel’s eyelids flinched. “I have apologized to Wen and to my family.”

“Not to all of it. You have a half sister—”

“Kyle,” Lianne interrupted. “That’s enough.”

“—who refused to point a finger at you, even though it would have helped her at a time when she needed help very badly. You had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to steal jade, but she never said a word against you.”

Anger darkened Daniel’s face. “I wouldn’t steal from my own grandfather!”

“Yet you assumed Lianne would steal from
her
own grandfather,” Johnny said in a strained voice. “You assumed my daughter—your half sister—was a thief. Why? What has she done to you that you hate her so?”

Daniel had no answer except the one Kyle had already given. Jealousy.

Wen’s voice rasped in a demand that needed no translation. Johnny spoke quickly in Chinese. Wen listened, then banged his walking stick on the floor for silence.

“Daniel misjudged his half sister,” Wen said.

Joe and Johnny froze. Never had they heard their father speak of any blood relationship with Lianne Blakely.

“But the fault is mine,” Wen continued. “The example was mine. I was content to use Lianne’s inborn gift for jade and her natural hunger to be part of the Tang family.”

Lianne’s voice faltered. Johnny took up the translation without a pause.

“My first two sons followed my example,” Wen said. “They used Lianne. But unlike me, they felt no affection for her. Nor did they worry what would happen if they sacrificed her for their own foolish ambitions. She was, after all, merely a woman, and a woman without family at that.”

“She has a family,” Kyle said fiercely. “Mine. There isn’t a Donovan who wouldn’t go to war for her. Pass the word through the Tang family, Wen. Lianne isn’t alone anymore. Find your next sucker somewhere else.”

Lianne turned toward Kyle, but he didn’t notice. He was concentrating on Wen. Something very much like a smile was tugging on the old man’s thin, pale lips.

“I wish I could see my granddaughter’s defender,” Wen said. “It would give me an idea of what my great-grandchildren will look like. Marry soon. I have little time left.”

“Nothing has been said about a wedding,” Lianne said over her father’s translation.

“That’s one way of keeping the Neolithic blade in the family,” Kyle pointed out. “It would make a good wedding present.”

Lianne stared at him like he had gone crazy.

“Haven’t you figured it out yet, sweetheart?” Kyle asked, smiling gently at her. “Men know right away when they find their mate. It’s women who need time to be convinced. How much more time do you think you’ll take to add one and one and get two?”

Wen’s dry laughter followed Johnny’s translation. When Lianne started to speak, Wen smacked his walking stick on the floor in a command for silence.

“That virtuous blade will be the least of my gifts to you when you wed Kyle Donovan,” Wen said to Lianne. “It is only fitting that the Jade Emperor’s granddaughter go in wealth to her new family.”

Lianne was too stunned to say anything.

Wen smiled as though he could see her face. “It is true, girl. Look around you and know that you have been privileged to shape and polish your jade skills among the greatest jade treasures ever gathered. Centuries ago, your Tang ancestors found the secret way into the Jade Emperor’s Tomb.” Wen lifted one frail, trembling hand in a gesture that took in the vault. “It became ours. All of it.”

He thumped the walking stick on the floor once more. “Leave me, now. I am tired.”

Kyle put his arm around Lianne and urged her out of the vault. “I owe you dinner at the Rain Lotus. It’s a quiet place. We can talk.”

“About what?”

“Upgrading my collection of erotica,” he said blandly.

Lianne gave him a wary, sideways glance. “I didn’t know you had one.”

“I’m working on it.” Kyle smiled at her. “And you’re going to help me.”

“I am?”

“Sure. Think about all those hours of jade training you owe me in exchange for the stuffed-elephant escort service.”

“Ummm.”

“And if I haven’t convinced you by then that one and one makes two, I’m cashing in that third chance you promised me. But I’d rather keep it in reserve.” Kyle leaned down and brushed a kiss over Lianne’s mouth. “A lifetime is a long time to go without extra chances, sweetheart. Especially when two people are as stubborn as we are.”

She looked into Kyle’s clear, beautiful eyes and saw just how serious he was. Her heart turned over even as she smiled up at him.

“I don’t know if I like being part of your, um, erotic collection,” she said.

“How about if I’m part of yours instead?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Start one.”

Smiling, Lianne put her arm around Kyle and leaned into his familiar strength. “Okay.”